Community Matters

I almost titled this four strands of rope in homage to the very first 3 Ninjas movie in which the importance of family and team work are ingrained into the brothers. Instead I will keep it simple-Community Matters.

This has been a long time coming. The gist of this has been floating around in my head for about two weeks now. I had planned on writing it last weekend while dog sitting and then I got sick so I did nothing but read and watch a lot of Vet School on Nat Geo Wild. Then I came home finally got over my sickness and have spent the last few days studying about cows, pigs, and sheep for the farm I plan on owning when I get the money to afford such a place. You would think that such research has nothing to do with community, and it doesn't really, except my main conspirator other than my father in this future venture is one of my best friends who has been with me every step of the way listening to my ramblings on sheep breeds and money breakdowns. (Thanks Adelphos)

Now, for the important things. I mentioned in my last two posts that I go to a Bible Study on Tuesday nights. That is where the idea for this post started, Bible Study. We've been going for two years and I've known a majority of these people most of my life. Even that didn't mean being vulnerable and open came easy. It took quite some time before these people heard it all, the hard stuff included, not just the happy stuff that is social media worthy. I can remember the first time I really opened up during the study of Hosea, the results of that night became a post and you can find it under the title Hedged Up.

Why is that important? Because, we aren't meant to do life alone. It isn't biblical and we weren't created that way. We were created for community. The Church is a body, made up of parts that have to work together. If one part doesn't do its job then the body suffers. By the same token if a member of the body is hurt the rest of the body surrounds it and helps. I can find no better example of this than my sister Nikki. Two years ago she was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. By the grace of God she's been cancer free for a year. Then again it can easily be said on the basis of Romans 8:28 that the grace of God is why she had it in the first place. God made my sister much stronger through it, it was for her good, no matter the ugly shape that it took.

Anyway, her first surgery happened just a day or so after a Tuesday night bible study. So as is our modus operandi we took prayer request that night and I had some of my favorite people in the world praying for my favorite sister in the world. It didn't stop that night though. The day dawned and my phone was making all manner of noises from texts and twitter notification from these brothers and sisters of mine telling me that they were praying for Nikki, not just my sister, but theirs because of Christ. I've seen the body of Christ do some pretty amazing things around the world but I don't know that I will see that topped. Mostly because it was personal but also because I got a front row seat to seeing how the body was supposed to work.

In these past two years I've sat in our circle, sometimes a crude example of the shape as we've gathered on couches and chairs and sometimes picnic tables, and I've listened and learned and let myself be open. I'm not by nature an open person. Introverted, I tend to err on the side of letting what I'm feeling stay hidden unless you're one of  a select few people.These people, the community of Auxano have changed that. I do not go in gushing every detail of my life but I know I don't have to hide. Repeatedly God has used them to show me things. Sometimes good things, what and how others see me still astounds me (like I said I'm an introvert and I am not a fan of attention). Other times my shortcomings are revealed but that is most often accomplished by discussion and God pointing out where I'm not doing as I should.  Though I have no doubt one of these brothers or sisters of mine would be willing to do the right thing and help me by showing me something wrong in my life if they saw it.

These last few posts have been of the latter variety. We do not shy away from the hard passages, we dig into them. In discussing them my lack of trust, my idolizing dreams, have been revealed through the Word as we battle with what the passages say and how they deal with our lives as Christians. I'm sure it will continue to happen. I will be built up by these people and I hope build them up as well.

Community matters because they support you. It matters because they help you grow. It matters because they aren't willing to let you shy away from dealing with hard things when you need to grow. They are there to laugh, to pray, and to be as they should, your brothers and sisters.

I just finished watching Fast 7 with my father. If you aren't a stranger to my blog you know that I tend to draw meanings from movies that may or may not have been put there but they are things I see. In this as the others the importance of a tight knit group is clearly laid out. However, there is a single line that brings it all together. Vin Diesel's character while squaring up against Jason Statham utters the words 'I don't have friends, I have a lot of family.'

In the end that is incredibly true, as the body of Christ I don't really have friends I have family. Within Auxano I have family not friends, but people I look out for and I know look out for me. I will be forever grateful for that family, and community. If you don't have such a group I urge you to get plugged in somewhere and find it. You won't be the same if you do. Life isn't always social media worthy. Having someone there during the bad times and the good, who knows the ins and outs is what community is all about.

"Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone. two will withstand him-a threefold cord is not quickly broken."-Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

"Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpen another."-Proverbs 27:17

The Problem with Dreaming

I’d love to start this with something funny. Throwing in another Frozen reference would be a good way to break the ice. Unfortunately I can’t because there is nothing humorous in what is going to follow this pointless opening.

I struggled with how to start this whole thing off. You can look at the above three sentences and see that. When you write a book they say the opening sentence can make or break it. That assumption alone means the odds of you continuing to read this aren’t high. I beg your pardon, bear with me, I hope by the end you will understand it all. At the risk of being redundant what is to follow will be in part nothing new and yet in essence quite fresh. Ready? Good.

If you are like me when you were little you probably had big dreams for yourself. You know the kind I’m talking about, the little boy who is going to be a superhero when he grows up, the young girl who is going to be a princess in some magical castle complete with a prince. Fast forward a few years and you discover reality and that dreams rarely work out or at the least they change.

The title of this is not actually an attack on having dreams. It might look like such but I promise I’m not condemning someone who has big dreams. In fact dreams are good they help keep that part of us alive that so many people kill off as they age-imagination. The problem comes when those dreams become idols. And they can so easily morph into something you want so badly that you forget that you weren’t put on Earth to dream you were put here for a purpose and sometimes that purpose looks nothing like what you thought it would.

When I was younger I was convinced by the time I was twenty I’d be married and have kids. I didn’t realize then that twenty wasn’t that old or that at such an age I’d only be two years out of high school. Life moves on, I’m three months from being twenty-six and can’t have biological kids. That dream is out the window. But do you see what I mean? It’s incredibly easy to get these ideas in our heads of what we want to happen so bad we just convince ourselves no matter their legitimacy they will come true.

Then they don’t come true and you’re left wondering if something went wrong or you didn’t try hard enough.

Maybe you have dreams that aren’t inherently selfish. The past several years I’ve spent a great majority of my time reading mission blogs and books, specifically the one’s that focus on Africa. A place I want to visit with people I need to meet and love and live among even just for a few weeks at a time. The problem being I can’t. There are the usual obstacles like money those plane tickets aren’t cheap. I also have to plan my travel around testosterone injections and that is more annoying than lacking financially.

Here is where that dream went south, where it became an idol. Strange to think something I thought was honoring God was in fact keeping me from doing just that. It got to the point where I just refused to think that God could have anything different for me to do. Africa or bust. I didn’t realize this until last week sitting in Bible Study. (Notice the theme of being in a group of people who grapple with the hard things in life. It’s important.) We talked briefly about missions and how there’s two defined roles. You are either one who goes or one who sends. Neither of these roles is more important than the other although it can certainly feel like it. But still, being a goer (even short term like I planned) isn’t an easy thing to let go of even if that means just waiting a little longer.

I realized though that for now I’m a sender. There is something remarkable in that role. Giving to Bayside is great, I love being able to give to the local body of Christ. However, giving to the global body, missions specifically, is fantastic. Maybe I can’t go now but I can help those that God has called to go now. It certainly hasn’t been an easy thing to come to terms with. But we aren’t promised a life that is easy. We are only promised a life that is for our good and often that good involves pain so we can grow and sorrow so we can have real and lasting joy.

You want to dream do it. Just make sure those dreams don’t become idols. Even the most God-honoring dreams can become idols if we aren’t careful. When that happens you can miss out on what God has for you and it is far better than anything you can dream up yourself.

Our good for His Glory.

Where My Trust is Without Borders

This past Tuesday during Bible study we were going over John 16:1-15. In the 13th verse Jesus tells the disciples that the Spirit of truth was going to come and would guide them. He is talking to them about the Holy Spirit. When I read this Tuesday night my mind went to the song Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) by Hillsong United. The first line of the bridge in that song says 'Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders.' It is incredibly easy to listen to that song and equate it to missions. Until last night I'd never thought about it outside of the context of saying lead me to the point that my trust in you goes beyond geographical lines. That is not at all wrong thinking, it is very much a song with a bridge that speaks of trusting God when you're not at home but you are all the more closer to Jesus because you lean on Him in those times.

While laying in bed it hit me that those borders don't just mean geographically. Theoretically, I could have just as hard a time trusting God with my finances and paying for school as I could with him calling me to a foreign country. I feel like it is so easy to get caught up in the idea of trusting God we pigeonhole that concept into either just the big things or just the little things but never both. There is no either or with trust, you either trust Him or you don't. I've heard 'If you can trust God with the big things why can't you trust him with the small things' so often. There is a great deal of truth to that. Many people find it much easier to give God the big things. I think that is because when it comes to  small things we feel like we can control them. That in and of itself is a huge problem. We can't do anything apart from God that is worthwhile and good for His kingdom. Our working in our own power is only going to get us into trouble and make things much worse than they were when we began. Somehow we still think it is a good idea for us to try. Those attempts end with us realizing how pointless it is to try without God but they never really seem to break us of the habit.

The flip side of that coin is trusting God only with the small things. It is as if we believe that the hard things are just too great for Him to work with and fix. That in itself blows my mind. God created everything. He spoke and the heavens and the Earth and all that lives on it came into existence. Yet we think something is too complex for Him to deal with? Which means our view of God is He is too busy to deal with the small things or too small to deal with the big things. Both of those are wrong.

"Casting all your anxieties on Him because he cares for you."-1Peter 5:7

No where in that verse does it say cast the diagnosis on me but not the troubles with your neighbor. Nor does it say tell me about the hurt you're feeling but those financial burdens are just too much for me to take care of for you. We've got to get out of the mindset that we either serve a God too small to handle our biggest problems or we are annoying Him with what we deem as insignificant or petty. Our God is mighty. Our God also cares. He cares about everything. There isn't a single thing you are going through or will go through that He doesn't know about. You are never alone. That means you aren't going to go to Him with anxiety that can't be lifted if you are willing to truly let it go.

Letting go is the key. Not the kind that involves ice princesses and musical numbers but complete and total surrender. Praying about something and then continuing to try and deal with it on your own isn't letting it go. I'm talking about pouring everything out to God and washing your hands of it. You leave it to God and you trust that He has it and you have peace. This peace isn't fleeting or momentary it lasts because it's His peace and it is perfect and comforting. It is also unfathomable to anyone who isn't a follower of Christ because the world cannot give you anything close to such a thing.

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."-Philippians 4:6-7

God's word says everything and He means it. If He wanted you to pray only about the big things or the little things he would have said one or the other. When He said everything that is exactly what he meant.

I'll admit trusting God isn't always easy. There are times when I sit and wonder why I am where I am and what He is doing. There also times when trusting Him is the only thing that gets me through life. He is always good. He is always faithful. He is always sovereign.

In the end maybe you can rework the the first line of that bridge a little.

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders and that means I don't worry about money. 

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders and that means I don't worry about where I'll be in five years.

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders and that means I don't find my identity in what the world around me says about me but in you.

I don't know what that looks like for you. God does. Tell Him and lay it down forever. Peace is far better than carrying around a weight you can't deal with when in the end you have no control of the situation in the first place.

Trust Him. Trust Him with the "big" and the "little". Just don't put that trust in a mold and think it only means one type of problem.

Growing Old is Mandatory but Growing Up is optional.

Today I had the honor and privelege of watching one of my best friends get married. I've known Corey since we were eleven. My first memory of him involves our Wednesday night service known as Y.U.C.. Before all of middle school met together like it is now, sixth grade was separated from the seventh and eigth grade students. He ate an entire bag of Ghiradelli chocolate squares and to this day I have no how idea he managed it without being sick.

 Since that night I've made many memories with him. One of the best was a Skillet concert back during the Awake and Alive tour. Corey introduced me to them while we were in high school and seeing them live with him is  a night I won't forget. I still remember where I was when he called me and told me he had tickets and wanted to know if I wanted to go see them.

If you know Corey you know that he likes to have fun. We've had plenty of together. You also know Corey is hilarious. Combine those two characteristics and put them at a table of high school freshmen boys and you have a recipe for disaster. Our first two years of high school it was deemed a good idea to allow us to police ourselves. We had no leader at our table and that was likely not the best idea for most freshmen boys. Especially boys that happened to be us. God, and He alone knew that somehow leaving us alone would allow us to not only grow tighter as a group of guys but certainly helped us develop as young men who learned to stay on task (usually) and actually do what we were supposed to do.

Something very interesting happened those two years, I learned to speak. I do not often speak in groups, though I do more so now than I did at fourteen. Corey helped me speak. I was and still am a shy, introverted person.  Those Sunday mornings though were a solid introduction in what it meant to be part of a group of people I could talk with. Fast forward seven years and I'm leading a group of seventh grade boys and occasionally teaching Bible Study. My freshmen and sophmore years of high school helped show me the way, Corey especially.
 I followed my best friends to Middle School Ministry when we graduated High School in 2008. The logical place for me to be 'helping' was wherever Corey was. He did sound with the Kesslers. So I did sound. For Corey that meant running MediaShout (Now ProPresenter) and the soundboard. My job was to sit on a stool beside him and watch and learn. I did a lot of that and now seven years later I'm still running sound in Middle School Ministry. Getting Corey and I together usually means you will be getting some sort of shenanigans. Even as leaders we had plenty of fun  in the "soundbooth" that was just a tiny section cut into the wall of what is now the college room at Bayside. From Fear Factor to Deal or No Deal we laughed way more than we should have and I think it is fair to say we were probably a distraction on occasion.

Those early years of sound though came with plenty of memories. Two in particular stick out. The first was during our first year of sixth grade initiation when the new kids had a chugging contest. Corey gave one of the kids a strongly shaken carbonated beverage which promptly spewed all over the poor boy while we cackled like maniacs. The second was during a sermon Eric Dill said someting about Highway to Hell and Corey and I both just looked at each other and started muttering the lyrics to the AC/DC song under our breath. Like I said we were completely behaved, never distracting, perfect adults.

Shenanigans then means shenanigans now. Corey sat in the balcony with me a few Sundays ago (I normally sit on the floor) and Mr.Tony and Miss Lisa were gone. Halfway through the sermon Corey's phone falls  off his lap and makes a nice, loud thud on the floor. Our mature response was to start laughing. We can joke with each other and one of the easy avenues is our clothes. Early this year I came to church wearing a cardigan and get a text from Corey that says 'Mr.Rogers likes your sweater and so do I.' My response was:It's a cardigan and thank you. Even today before the wedding I was messing with him and told him if he walked out in  tux I was probably going to faint. His response was:Get a wet towel ready. He did in fact have on a tuxedo. 

All that aside, I want to say this: Cor, I love you brother. The wedding was fantastic. I don't think I've been to a wedding that was more fitting to the people in it than yours and Michelle's. From the groomsmen carrying lightsabers to the ring bearer being Darth Vader to the Star Wars scores, it was very you and that was great. You clean up well sir, you should do it more often. I wish you and Michelle all the best in your marriage. Christ was honored during the ceremony and I cannot wait to see how you honor Him throughout the coming years.

Growing old is mandatory but growing up is optional.